China fingered in cyber attack

According to a congressional advisory panel, which detailed one operation that siphoned "extremely large volumes" of sensitive data, the Chinese government is stepping up efforts to steal valuable information from high-technology companies in other countries, says The Register.

The 2007 attack against the unnamed hi-tech company was just one of several successful operations the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission believes was sponsored by Beijing.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the contents of a report the panel was expected to release Thursday, the Chinese government is suspected because of the "professional quality" of the attack and the technical natures of the stolen information.

Insurance company Zurich lost the personal data of 51 000 UK customers during a routine transfer to a data storage centre in SA, in August last year, reports Computing.co.uk.

In some cases - depending on the type of policy held by the customer - the lost data includes personal contact information, including addresses and telephone numbers.

The firm said there was no evidence the data had been misused, but that the tape's location was still unknown.

The EU has said Oracle has so far failed to produce evidence to ease concerns that its purchase of Sun Microsystems would be anti-competitive, reports The BBC.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she was "disappointed" by the lack of proposals to placate EU worries.

Business software firm Oracle has proposed a $7.4 billion takeover of hardware and software maker Sun.

An unnamed executive at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is cited repeatedly in the Galleon Funds insider-trading case, presenting a potentially awkward situation for the chipmaker as the case goes forward, says CNet.

It's not clear if the AMD executive cited in the US Attorney's complaint would be charged or even implicated by name, but government charges of insider trading have rattled Silicon Valley. Rajiv Goel, MD of strategic investments for Intel's treasury group, was arrested and charged in the case and put on leave, forcing Intel CEO Paul Otellini to publicly address the case.

And a high-level executive at IBM, senior VP Robert Moffat, was placed on leave Monday after he was charged. Moffat is accused of supplying details about IBM and Sun Microsystems earnings to Danielle Chiesi, who worked for the New Castle hedge fund.